


Bite Marks

by Veilrony



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: M/M, SSSS AU, Stitches, finnish bert, gore warning possibly, messed up zombies, norwegian reiner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 17:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17964692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veilrony/pseuds/Veilrony
Summary: Stand Still Stay Silent AU where Reiner and Bertolt are on a mission into the silent world together. In the aftermath of a troll attack, Reiner heals Bertolt's wounds.





	Bite Marks

Bertholdt’s arm got screwed up pretty badly in that skirmish. Blood was dripping from at least five toothmarks, not to mention the scratch that went the entire way down his forearm. Both Reiner and the mage were glad that the troll had missed his veins.

“Come in, I’ll get you patched up,” Reiner shouted. Bertholdt looked up at the sound, and to emphasize his message, he waved to beckon him. The mage took off his hood, blood dripping down his sleeve, and followed Reiner in. The other members of the party were less injured, so Reiner took them last. It was Bertholdt on the front lines, chanting his spells to try and send the troll into flames, as he’d done many times before. It hadn’t worked this time, and it’d taken so far as beheading to kill the troll.

“I’m so glad you’re immune,” Reiner whispered, and Bertholdt nodded.

“Please don’t put yourself in danger like that again.” They walked onto their vessel, and Reiner sat the other man down on the table.

“Disgusting!” Someone barked in Icelandic, and Reiner twisted around to see Eren staring at the wound on his arm.

His mask was off. Reiner barked at him to get it back on, then for extra measure told him to leave them alone. He wasn’t sure if Eren understood the Norse, but he made his way away from the deck.

Bertholdt’s breath was shuddering, as if he wasn’t used to seeing so much blood. “I’m not going to die?” he asked in his rough Norse.

Reiner shook his head, taking Bertholdt’s coat and pulling it off. He’d need to wash this. Bertholdt stiffened with his protections taken off, but Reiner eased him. “I don’t want your wound to get infected…” He stood up, getting off his own stool and looking for his first aid kit. It was rudimentary for this, but as long as it was disinfected and bandaged, it should be okay. He found it and sat back down.

“Okay,” Bertholdt said. He was shaking like an autumn leaf, and Reiner had to hold his arm. He inspected the wound and saw that a tooth got left in one of the bitemarks… He reached into the kit and pulled out tweezers.

“There’s a tooth,” he explained. Bertholdt gripped Reiner’s arm and gritted his teeth.

“I’m ready,” he whispered. 

Reiner extracted it and he could hear the grunt of pain, and the iron grip on him. He dropped it on the table. It wasn’t a large tooth, and Reiner massaged the rest of the arm. Obviously the mage winced. “Move your fingers?” he asked quietly, and Bertholdt did with ease.

“Good,” he said. The wounds were deep though, and would definitely need stitching. “You’re so brave…” he said as he pulled out cotton balls and a bottle of disinfecting alcohol.

“But…” Reiner dabbed soaked cotton balls onto the wounds, causing Bertholdt to cry in pain. “But I failed.”

“We’re all alive,” Reiner said in an attempt to soothe him. He took a deep breath and the wintery air turned it into fog. “And that troll is dead.”

“No thanks to me.” 

Reiner gulped. Bertholdt was right. It was Hange who took their hatchet and killed the thing. “That doesn’t matter. It’s not a failure if you’re alive, got that?” He stopped with disinfecting for just a moment to look up at his sea green eyes. “I love you so, so much…” He looked back down at the wound, still dribbling out blood. Reiner took a cloth, dipped in the disinfectant, and got to cleaning it off his arms. “I can’t imagine what would happen if we lost you.”

“I love you too — agh!” Bertholdt almost tore his arm away, but Reiner held it steady.

“It’s okay…” He glanced at the first aid kit and saw a tube of gel. Using his other hand, he picked it up to inspect it, and noticed it was a local anaesthetic. He breathed a thanks to the gods, and then let go of Bertholdt’s arm. The mage cradled it and made deep breaths to ease the pain.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m going to numb your arm… I’m sorry for not doing it earlier.”

He nodded, then said something in Finnish. He gave his arm back to Reiner, who took it and squeezed the tube out around each of the wounds. He massaged it in, and Bertholdt’s reactions lessened and lessened until he was more horrified at what must be total numbness than at the actual pain of the wound. “Oh…”

He grabbed the needle and thread, and let go of Bertholdt’s arm. He kept it held out, and Reiner threaded his needle. “This’ll be done quick…” He held the mage’s arm again, and quickly stitched up the tooth marks. The scratch took much longer, but eventually it too was sealed. The only thing betraying it was there was a raised lump of skin, that was sure to scar. “Heh…”

Bertholdt glanced away from his arms, then stared at Reiner in that almost piercing way he did.

“Scars are cool, don’t you think?” he asked in explanation.

“I… I never thought of it.”

“I think they are,” Reiner said. “Either way… you’re safe now.” Reiner gave one more application of disinfectant, rubbing the alcohol over the stitch wounds, and gave Bertholdt’s gloved hand a kiss. 

He pulled it away. “Why did you do that?”

“Affection…” He never realized how much he liked his personal space, and Reiner made a note only to initiate affection if it seemed Bertholdt was in the mood.

“Oh…” Bertholdt leaned forward. “I’m safe now?” he asked, falling back to the previous topic.

“Yes.” Reiner got up and Bertholdt followed suit. Reiner left to find anyone else injured by the troll. He picked up the mage’s jacket, threw it into an open container, then sealed it. He’d wash it when he was certain any disease had died off of it.

He was surprised with sudden pressure from behind, and realized he’d been caught in a tight hug. He heard whispers in Finnish, and then there was a pause. “Sorry…” he said in Norse. “I love you.”

Reiner held the arms around his chest. “I love you too… now don’t reopen your stitches, and stay alive for me, okay?”

Bertholdt let go of him and twisted Reiner around. “I’ll do my best.”

“More than your best. I can’t lose you.”

Bertholdt paused. “If there’s the vaccine, and it’s guarded by a troll…”

“Then you stay safe and damn the vaccine.”

Bertholdt averted his eyes from Reiner. “Only if you’d do the same…”

Reiner nodded. “Then I will…”

Bertholdt gave a weak chuckle. “Thank you then… Go make sure the others are safe now…”

Reiner nodded. He left the vehicle, and saw everyone cleaning up the wreckage and salvaging what they could of camp. “Everyone load up!” he shouted. Most of the camp was destroyed, and everyone had an armful of things that were still usable. “We need to find a new campsite before more of them hear the ruckus.”

Five more people got into the miniature tank, all uninjured, and Reiner grabbed the sprayer attached to the wall. He sprayed everyone down with a disinfectant, and motioned for them to turn around. He sprayed again, then let them on the ship. He realized he hadn’t done the same for Bertholdt, so held back Eren and Ymir. “Keep your masks on for a few hours, okay? We need to make sure that all the virus dies off.” He threw a pointed glance at Eren, who just wrinkled his nose. Ymir nodded and tightened the strap on hers. “Good. Ymir, will you start driving? I’m going to make sure everyone else will be okay.”

Everyone got to position and Reiner closed the tank’s hatch. He made his way back to the central room and saw Bertholdt sitting down there again. “You okay?” Reiner asked.

He nodded, before laying down and pressing his forehead into the table. Reiner grabbed the troll tooth and threw it out, before shutting his first aid kit. He took his stool and sat down next to Bertholdt.

There was a bunch of whispers in Finnish, before he stood up and glanced at Reiner. “A spell,” he explained.

Huh?

“So you’d be safe.”

Oh… Reiner’s stomach tightened. “Thank you…”

“I love you,” he said again. He leaned into Reiner and gave a deep sigh. 

Reiner leaned onto Bertholdt’s head. “I love you too.”

The miniature tank started moving again, towards the first settlement they’d see throughout this entire journey. He hoped it’d be a safe one.

**Author's Note:**

> Might write more to this! I really love the webcomic's world that I used for this fic, and there's a lot of potential given the immune/non-immune status of the characters.


End file.
